| Kategorie |
Textpublikation |
| Referenztyp |
Zeitschriften |
| DOI |
10.1111/1365-2664.70548
|
Lizenz  |
|
| Titel (primär) |
More than just a margin: Local and landscape-scale factors regulating the effects of riparian forest buffers on stream-riparian ecosystems in urban and agricultural landscapes |
| Autor |
McKie, B.G.; Friberg, N.; Forio, M.A.E.; Kupilas, B.; Mutinova, P.T.; Sargac, J.; Ramberg, E.; Popescu, C.; Niță, D.; Dinu, V.; Sava, M.; Witing, F.
; Truchy, A.; Kahlert, M.; Johnson, R.K.; Goethals, P.; Rîşnoveanu, G.; Volk, M.
; Burdon, F.J. |
| Quelle |
Journal of Applied Ecology |
| Erscheinungsjahr |
2026 |
| Department |
CLE |
| Band/Volume |
63 |
| Heft |
8 |
| Seite von |
e70548 |
| Sprache |
englisch |
| Topic |
T5 Future Landscapes |
| Daten-/Softwarelinks |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2280gb67r |
| Supplements |
Supplement 1 |
| Keywords |
biodiversity; blue-green infrastructure; ecosystem functioning; environmental co-benefits; land use; nature-based solution; riparian restoration; stream ecosystem |
| UFZ Querschnittsthemen |
CROSSLINK; |
| Abstract |
- Riparian forest buffers are a potentially potent
nature-based solution for mitigating environmental degradation and
improving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in stream-riparian
networks. However, uncertainties about how buffer size, spatial
configuration and land-use intensity shape outcomes and trade-offs
hinder management applications.
- We conducted coordinated field surveys and modelling
across four European countries to evaluate how riparian forest
properties influence stream-riparian environments, biodiversity,
ecosystem processes and macroinvertebrate functional traits along
agricultural and urban land-use gradients.
- Riparian forest buffers had strong effects on
habitats, increasing shading and coarse woody debris. Sediment
deposition was halved in buffered stream reaches, and longer buffers
lowered thermal maxima in stream and riparian habitats by 13%–17%.
Buffers further reduced effects of increasing agricultural land use on
soluble reactive phosphate concentrations, although this response was
highly variable.
- These environmental changes were associated with
multiple effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function. Buffer presence
and/or increasing length were associated with 30%–167% increases in
microbial detritus decomposition, a 44% increase in riparian ground
beetle diversity, and 18%–77% increases in stream macroinvertebrate
diversity and the EPT biotic index, and macroinvertebrate leaf shredding
and algal grazing traits. In contrast, algal biomass accrual and
web-building spider diversity declined by 33% and 36%, respectively, in
buffered reaches.
- As land-use intensified, riparian forest buffers
helped maintain macroinvertebrate functional diversity and shredding,
predation, and filtration traits, and saturated fatty acid content in
terrestrial predators. In contrast, macroinvertebrate particle-gathering
traits declined.
- The spatial configuration of riparian forest
influenced stream ecosystems at local scales: dissolved phosphorus and
diatom species richness declined as spatial proximity among upstream
riparian forest blocks decreased, while a diatom-based biomonitoring
index increased.
- Synthesis and applications. Riparian forest
buffers support biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and food webs in
human-modified landscapes, and dampen land-use and climate stressors
(sediments, nutrients, thermal maxima), motivating their wider use in
management. These outcomes were regulated by the presence or size of
mostly small, mature buffers and sometimes by proximity among riparian
forest blocks upstream, indicating that even modest investments in
expanding existing buffer networks are likely to deliver cumulative
ecological benefits.
|
McKie, B.G., Friberg, N., Forio, M.A.E., Kupilas, B., Mutinova, P.T., Sargac, J., Ramberg, E., Popescu, C., Niță, D., Dinu, V., Sava, M., Witing, F., Truchy, A., Kahlert, M., Johnson, R.K., Goethals, P., Rîşnoveanu, G., Volk, M., Burdon, F.J. (2026):
More than just a margin: Local and landscape-scale factors regulating the effects of riparian forest buffers on stream-riparian ecosystems in urban and agricultural landscapes
J. Appl. Ecol. 63 (8), e70548
10.1111/1365-2664.70548 |
